THE bodies of all 298 victims recovered from the MH17 crash site will be flown to the Netherlands after a refrigerated train carrying the remains left a rebel-controlled town in eastern Ukraine four days after the disaster.

The train left Torez at 7pm local time (2am AEST) and will travel 300km to the government-controlled Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

The train will be met by senior Australian officials. The bodies will then be immediately flown to the Netherlands for identification.

Dutch pathologists will undertake the complex and sensitive identification process, which could take weeks.

Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Volodymyr Groysman said 282 bodies and 87 fragments of another 16 bodies had been found. The victims include up to 39 Australian citizens and residents.

Earlier the refrigerated wagons had been inspected by Dutch experts who said the handling of the bodies was satisfactory.

The news will be a small relief to the families of the victims who feared their loved ones were being used as pawns in a political standoff between the Russian backed separatists and the Ukrainian nationalists.

Mr Groysman said the bodies would be identified in “the best laboratories in the world”.

Grim work ... a man wearing a gas mask climbs on a truck unloading newly retrieved bodies from the crash site of MH17 into a refrigerated train in Torez, eastern Ukraine. Picture: Vadim GhirdaSource:AP

‘Satisfactory’ handling ... a monitor from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and members of a forensic team cover their noses at the railway station in Torez. Picture: Bulent KilicSource:AFP

Three Dutch experts are accompanying the bodies on the train.

When the train does reach Kharkiv the bodies will undergo security scans and be transferred to a Dutch military aircraft.

That process will be observed by Australia’s ambassador to Ukraine, Jean Dunn, and a defence attaché from London.

Two other Australian consular officials are then expected to travel on the Dutch C130 Hercules to Amsterdam.

The plane will be greeted there by Australia’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Neil Mules, and a defence attaché from The Hague.

In Holland, forensic experts from Australia will assist in the identification process.

Canberra is hoping for a “speedy turnaround” with the Australian victims being repatriated on a RAAF aircraft.

While Dutch experts visited the crash site yesterday with European observers, the rebels wouldn’t allow other international officials into the area.

Mr Groysman said Ukraine had passed responsibility for the crash investigation — as well as the identification work — to an international team that would again be spearheaded by the Dutch and include Australian specialists.

“The world has to know who is responsible for this aircraft being shot down,” the deputy PM said through a translator in Kiev.

AAP understands Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s special envoy in Ukraine, retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, meet with the Ukrainian president shortly before the train left Torez.

The Australian recovery team includes 20 foreign affairs officials, 20 federal police officers and two Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigators who are due in Kiev today.

Meanwhile hundreds of relatives from the 61 Dutch towns and many epresentatives from the 11 nations impacted by the Malaysia Airlines MH17 calamity met with Dutch royalty and political leaders overnight.

In a solemn and tearful private meeting King Willem-Alexander heard the stories of each of the 193 Dutch victims.

“This terrible calamity has beaten a deep wound in our society,’’ he said in a televised address after meeting with the loved ones of the victims.